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There's no case study by Tim Leary because he's dead and liked Acid. Are shrooms a poison? Why do you people honestly think they are here. What is there function in nature? Is it strictly for humans to see that the world doesn't revolve around them or do you think, perhaps it was some fluke.

In my opinion, they developed psilocybin and psilocin as deterrents to any animal that tried to eat em. They are pretty much poisons, but after many animals figured out that they would kill, they stopped eating em. So years later, the mushrooms has low levels of psilocybin and psilocin which wouldn't kill, but the animals know not to eat em. I also fear that since so many people are consuming them, they will quickly adapt, but not in this lifetime... This is probably happening because of "survival of the fittest," where only the genes that enable survival live on through the generations. They will probably adapt by producing a poison, or producing less levels of psilocybin and psilocin, but this isn't really important because you'll be dead long before this happens...

In reply to: They are pretty much poisons, but after many animals figured out that they would kill, they stopped eating em. So years later, the mushrooms has low levels of psilocybin and psilocin which wouldn't kill, but the animals know not to eat em.

Yeah,except they ARENT "pretty much poisons".They are not really very toxic at all,compared to some other substances mushrooms produce,not to mention the 1000's of toxins the plant kingdom has come up with.

Yes psilocybin/psilocin are virtually non-toxic. I think they are classified as non-toxic. The concentration of these required in a mushroom to kill even a small animal would be much higher than anything possible in nature.

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The story book's been read
And every line believed
Curriculum's been set
Logic is a threat
Reason searched and seized

Perhaps the purpose was as a poison, though not against large animals. It could have evolved to keep insects at bay. Being eaten away by a bugs is much more likely than being eaten away by a mammal or something. Insects share many of the same neurotransmitters that we do and it wouldn't require near as much psilocybin..

Mushrooms are here to fill their place in the eco system. Why does psiloc(yb)in exist in mushrooms and cause humans to trip? There are many substances in many plants, even in humans, whose purpose is unknown. I think psiloc(yb)in is probably just one of those chemicals, and it just happens to cause us to trip. A fluke, I'd wager..

I'd also wager there are plants that contain substances that are psychoactive to certain animals, and not humans, due to the difference in brain structure.A very interesting topic, to be sure.

You make a good point. Certain animals, certain mushroom predators, may be highly reactive to psilo(cy)bin, due to a vastly different brain structure. So it may be a poison. It may be nature tossing you a bone, letting us know theres so much more out there than our daily rat race lives would have us believe... Maybe its just a fluke... What I wouldn't give to know..

Here's an idea: if it wasn't in mushrooms, would psilocybin/psilocin exist elsewhere in life?

Tryptamines seem to be a very common type of chemical found in a vast portion of the life on this planet (maybe all life?). So tryptamines must be a basic result (and necessity?) of the existence of complex organisms.

I think maybe psilocin exists because it was bound to exist somewhere in life. It may have been up to coincidence as to which lifeform ended up producing it.

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The story book's been read
And every line believed
Curriculum's been set
Logic is a threat
Reason searched and seized

I am aware that these chemicals are non-toxic, but they aren't to many animals... sure, maybe raising mushrooms in a controlled enviornment will keep them from adapting, but sooner or later, something is gonna happen so it can protect itself from humans.

Humans aren't hurting mushrooms, though. We provide them with better conditions and much higher survival rates than anything in nature. A species may addapt through mutation but the mutations that survive would be the ones that help survival the most. If shrooms mutated into something toxic humans would stop growing and spreading them. Less of the species would survive if that happened.

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The story book's been read
And every line believed
Curriculum's been set
Logic is a threat
Reason searched and seized

None have been found yet. In fact there's an article showing where sheep will eat magic mushrooms the exclusion of every other food source because they enjoy it so much.

Psilocybin serves no purpose in the life system of the mushroom. Yet it donates 10-15% of it's precious energy to producing it. Nature never allows such wastes of energy without a very good reason. Poison it ain't.

I've read that some chemicals in cubensis are suspected to have negative affects on insect lifecycles. It doesn't kill them, but rather keeps them from achieving the next step in their life cycle. the active chems in shrooms may just be a product of some other reaction that's essential for their survival. Plus do we really know that that the psilo-chems don't play a part in the life cycle of these fungi? By the way, does anyone know the relation b/w tryptophan, tryptamine and tryptose? Is tryptamine the just tryptophan w/ an NH2 where an H+ once was? Tryptose is a sugar, apperantly, but how is it related to the others?